helent

February 2010 - Waiting for a swap/rating? Mail to and from the US seems to be taking a really long time at the moment - some cards have reached me 30 days after they were postmarked. I always send and always rate, so please give me a little longer (or PM me) if you're waiting on something.

I live in Fitzroy in Melbourne, and would never live anywhere else - love being close to the city, and the coffee.

I work for the state government, and outside of work I mostly like sewing, op shopping, watching tv on dvd, and hanging with friends.

I do a lot of patchwork, but can never decide if I love or hate it - I love hand-made things, I love the ethos of the Arts and Craft Movement, of applying artistic skills to everyday items, of reclaiming fabrics for a new use, but sometimes, I absolutely hate the grind of actually making things! So my projects drag on for months...

I like my postcards sent naked, please. Somehow, it's not a real postcard if it arrives in an envelope.

I've collected postcards all my life, starting from when I was a kid and my dad used to send them to us when he travelled for work. Because he always travelled to the same place (Geneva), I have a lot of duplicated cards from there! And my friends and family now know to send me cards whenever they travel.

I like:
* postcards from places - beautiful images of your town/country
* I'd love some postcards with Jackalopes, or similarly fun cards
* reproductions of old photos
* postcards of unassuming local landmarks, like the local post office, promotional cards for crappy motels
* architecture
* postcards of libraries, or to do with books
* textiles and fabrics
* local artists
* photography (Ansell Adams, Frank Hurley, Wee Gee and Dorothea Lange are a few of my favourites)
* things to do with the Old West and westerns, or the South West
* anything to do with movies
* retro ads
* map cards
* 'Greetings from...' cards. I'd especially like one from Asbury, NJ, as "Greeting from Asbury, NJ" is my favourite Springsteen album.

I'm pretty easy to please! About the only thing I don't like is anything too cutesy.

I love really scrappy squilts of almost any design. I like all colours, buy I don't use too many bright colours, and I don't like novelty prints or most prints that look like actually things. Check out my quilts on flickr (link above).

Buffy the Vampire Slayer, True Blood, Dexter, Arrested Development, Big Love, Degrassi Junior High, Oz, Supernatural, Spooks, Black Books, Veronica Mars, Deadwood, Burn Notice

Heat, Le Samourai, Near Dark, Stander, Brokeback Mountain, Saved!, Pride & Prejudice, The Outsiders, Cry Baby, Millers Crossing, Intolerable Cruelty, Hud, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Ride with the Devil, Dollars Trilogy, Ocean's Eleven, Out of Sight, Gosford Park, The Departed

Patchwork/quilts

Favourite authors: Neal Stephenson, Jane Austen, W. Somerset Maugham, John D McDonald, Raymond Chandler, Carl Hiaasen

Neko Case, Calexico, Iron and Wine, Talking Heads, Nick Drake, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Grant-Lee Phillips, Rhapsody in Blue, The Smiths, Neil Young, Bruce Springsteen, They Might Be Giants, Massive Attack